Warning: similar to many other
keyboard layouts utilizing the “Alt Gr” key, this layout will render
unusable most of the hotkeys that use Ctrl+Alt key combinations.

English (International) Keyboard Layout

Select a key to view its desctiption

Special letters and symbols denoted with
red and
orange colors are entered when
the right-hand Alt key is being hold (for example,
[Alt Gr]+[1] → [§] or
[Alt Gr]+[a] → [æ]).
Special symbols located in the upper case are entered when one of the Shift
keys is being hold along with the right-hand Alt key (for example,
[Alt Gr]+[Shift]+[1] → [¡] or
[Alt Gr]+[Shift]+[a] → [Æ]).

Most of the dead keys also make it possible to enter combining diacritical
marks (those appended to a previously input letter), and free-standing
diacritical marks (those not associated with a letter altogether).

Combining diacritical marks are entered by pressing a dead key followed
by Spacebar. These symbols have to be typed after the letters they
are combined with. They are useful when some exotic letters need to be input
which are either absent in the Unicode standard or not supported by this layout (for example,
[Mm], [Alt Gr]+[`], [Spacebar] → [M̀m̀] or
[Alt Gr]+[;], [Aa], [Alt Gr]+[2], [Spacebar] → [Ǟǟ]).

Free-standing diacritical marks are entered by pressing a dead key followed
by the typewriter apostrophe ['] (for example,
[Alt Gr]+[;], ['] → [¨] or
[Alt Gr]+[c], ['] → [¸]).
These symbols are not considered to be letters and are not thus used in ordinary
texts (with the exception of free-standing acute mark, entered with
[Alt Gr]+['], ['] → [ˊ]
sequence, which actually is a letter in Skolt Sami).

Red color denotes symbols and letters
included in the standard “Windows Western” single-byte code page. Symbols
denoted with orange color require
support for either the multi-byte Unicode character set or an approppriate
national Latin character encoding in order to work properly. Some of these
symbols may be displayed incorrectly or not displayed at all if your system
lacks the required fonts.

Green and
blue colors denote letters and symbols
whose input is only activated after
[Alt Gr]+[f] or
[Alt Gr]+[Shift]+[f] key combination
has been pressed, respectively. These key combinations work in the same way
as dead keys described above: first, a dead key has to be pressed, and then
the required “color” letter should follow (for example,
[Alt Gr]+[f], [Shift]+[e] → [Ɛ] or
[Alt Gr]+[Shift]+[f], [e] → [ɜ]).

A yellow-colored square denotes the key
that activates entering of Greek letters.

For some of the special letters and symbols, extra key combinations are
used that are by no means reflected in the layout diagram above. These
special rules are highlited with blue
color in key descriptions that follow.

Ctrl+Alt key combination may also be used interchangeably with
the “Alt Gr” key.

Installation guide

Unpack the contents of the installation package
(“en-intl-setup.zip”) into a convenient location on your hard drive.

Open “English (International) Keyboard Layout” folder
and run “setup.exe.” If the system asks you for a permission
to modify its settings, give your consent to it. Wait until the installation
process finishes. Close the installation program’s window by pressing
“Close.”

Open the “Text Services and Input Languages” dialog box:
open Control Panel from the Start menu, double-click
“Regional and Language Options,” then select “Languages”
tab and click “Change Keyboards” (or “Details” under Windows XP).

Select “English (United States) - English (International)”
as the default keyboard layout from the drop-down list in the upper part
of the dialog box (skip this step if your default input language is different
from English).

Remove the old English keyboard layout by selecting it in the list
of installed layouts in the lower part of the dialog box and clicking
“Remove.” Click “OK” to apply changes.

Sometimes it may also be necessary to restart the computer in order
to complete the installation process.

Once the installation is complete, you may delete the downloaded setup
file along with its contents.

Uninstallation guide

In order to restore the old keyboard layout, perform the same actions
in reverse order:

Open the “Text Services and Input Languages” dialog box:
open Control Panel from the Start menu, double-click
“Regional and Language Options,” then select “Languages”
tab and click “Change Keyboards” (or “Details” under Windows XP).

Select “English (United States) - US” as the default
keyboard layout from the drop-down list in the upper part of the dialog box
(skip this step if your default input language is different from English).
Click “OK” to apply the changes.

Open “Programs and Features” dialog box (“Add or Remove Programs”
under Windows XP): “Start → Control Panel → Programs and Features.”
Select “English (International) Keyboard Layout” entry
from the list and click “Uninstall.” Confirm your intention
by clicking “Yes,” if required. If the system asks you
for a permission to modify its settings, give your consent to it.

Upper case: degree sign [°]. Used, among other things,
to denote a unit of plane angle (as in “the sum of the angles of a triangle is
180°”).

Mnemonic rule: degree sign is a round symbol located in the upper case;
here it is being accompanied by another very round symbol [@], which is
likewise located in the upper case.

Prime and double prime symbols: [′] and [″]. These symbols are
located alongside the degree sign, as they may be used, among other things,
to represent fractions of a degree.

Euro sign [€]. Shares a key with US dollar.

Lower case: per mille sign [‰]. Literally means
“one thousandth.” May be used as a unit of measure for seawater salinity and
road gradients, among other things.

Upper case: right-pointing arrow [→]. Though
not an officially recognized typographic symbol, it may be used sometimes
to indicate a sequence of actions (as in “Start → All Programs →
Accessories → System Tools → Character Map”) or an action’s result
(for instance, in simple chemical reactions).

Two mathematical symbols used to denote multiplication operation:
[×] and [∙]. The former is the common “times” symbol, whereas the latter
is the rather more technical “middle dot” (visually resembling the
interpunct, but technically being a separate
entity). To illustrate the latter notation, one may say, for example, that
“5‰ = 5∙10−3.”

Mnemonic rule: asterisk symbol [*] is a common means of denoting
multiplication in programming languages.

Single and double English quotation marks: [‘], [’], [“], and [”].
The single closing quotation mark [’] is also known as “apostrophe,” being
widely used in English and French, among other languages.

Note: in the modern world, double quotation marks seem to be rather
more popular than the single ones. However, they are placed in the upper case
here in order to facilitate entering of the apostrophe which is quite a popular
symbol on its own. Furthermore, such an arrangement is similar to that followed
by the typewriter apostrophe ['] and the typewriter quotation mark ["]
in the standard Windows keyboard.

Lower case: em dash [—].

Upper case: mathematical minus sign [−]. Unlike the more
common hyphen symbol [-] which is accessible from the standard Windows
keyboard and is widely used to denote subtraction in programming languages,
minus sign will always match perfectly the size of the plus sign (as in
“the weather forecast is −1 to +1 degrees Celsius, without precipitation”).

Lower case: plus-minus sign [±]. Widely used
in technical texts to represent approximate values (for example, “current
estimate for the age of the Universe is 13.75 ± 0.11 billion years”).

Upper case: special key for the
Vietnamese “level” (neutral) tone.
Makes it possible to enter letters [Ưư] and [Ơơ], and also
[Ăă], [Ââ], [Êê], and [Ôô],—that is, all the special Vietnamese vowels
pronounced in the level tone (and written without tone diacritical marks),—as
well as “horn” combining diacritical mark used to produce [Ưư] and [Ơơ] letters
(in combination with Spacebar).

After [Alt Gr]+[f] has been pressed: letter for
alveolar and postalveolar click consonants [ǃ]. It does not have an uppercase
form. In some African languages (for instance, in Zulu), “q” Latin letter
is used to denote these sounds.

Lower case: letter-like inverted apostrophe [ʻ].
This letter is widely used in Polynesian languages to denote glottal stops.
It resembles visually the single opening quotation mark [‘],
but does not necessarily coincide with that exactly. In Hawaiian language,
it is called “ʻokina.”

The same symbol is also used in contemporary Uzbek Latin script
(in letters [Oʻoʻ] and [Gʻgʻ]), and also in romanizations of Hebrew and,
sometimes, Arabic (where it represents letter
“ayin”).

Azerbaijani letter “turned e” [Əə]. Also used in many African languages.
Lowercase version of the letter is, besides that, a letter of
IPA, where it is called
“schwa.”

After [Alt Gr]+[f] has been pressed: African letter
“open e” [Ɛɛ]. Widely used in Western Africa south of the Sahara. Lowercase
version of the letter is also found in
IPA.

After [Alt Gr]+[Shift]+[f] has been pressed, lower case:IPA letter “reversed epsilon”
[ɜ]. Used to transcribe the vowel sound represented by “ir” in “girl.”

Lower case: registered trade mark sign [®].

Upper case: special key for entering of Greek letters.
Main intention of this key is to provide a possibility of entering various
idioms and scientific terms that use Greek letters (for example, “β-Carotene” or
“ΛCDM model”). It may be used to enter any of the contemporary Greek letters
(both lowercase and uppercase), including the word-tail variant “sigma” [ς].

Upper case: ellipsis […]. This is a single symbol
consisting of three full stops. I am personally not a fan of it, and that’s
why it is placed in the upper case.

After [Alt Gr]+[f] has been pressed: letter for
bilabial click consonants [ʘ]. It does not have an uppercase form.
Pronunciation of these clicks is somewhat similar to the sound denoted by
letter [Pp].

Double and single French quotation marks: [«], [»], [‹], and [›].

Lower case: en dash [–]. Used to denote ranges,
among other things.

Upper case: division sign, also known as “obelus” [÷].
Used to denote division operation, and also, sometimes, ranges.

Latin ligature “ae” [Ææ]. Used in some Scandinavian languages.
Lowercase version of the letter is also found in
IPA.

After [Alt Gr]+[f] has been pressed: African letter
“latin alpha” [Ɑɑ]. Used in some languages of Cameroon. Lowercase
version of the letter is also found in
IPA, where it is called
“script a.”

After [Alt Gr]+[Shift]+[f] has been pressed, lower case:IPA letter “turned script a” [ɒ].
Used in phonetic transcription of American English.

After [Alt Gr]+[Shift]+[f] has been pressed, upper case:IPA letter “turned a” [ɐ].
Used in phonetic transcription of German language.

After [Alt Gr]+[f] has been pressed: African letter
“esh” [Ʃʃ]. Uppercase form of this letter visually coincides with Greek “sigma,”
but technically is a separate entity. Lowercase
version of the letter is also found in
IPA, transcribing
the consonant sound represented by “sh” in “sharp.”

After [Alt Gr]+[Shift]+[f] has been pressed, lower case:
Latin medieval letter “long s” [ſ]. It used to be a variant of lowercase “s”
found at the beginning or in the middle of a word. This letter does not have
an uppercase form.

Icelandic and Faroese letter “eth” [Ðð]. Lowercase
version of the letter is also found in
IPA, where it is used
to transcribe the consonant sound represented by “th” in “the.”

After [Alt Gr]+[f] has been pressed: African letter
“d with retroflex hook” [Ɖɖ]. Uppercase form of this letter visually coincides
with that of Icelandic [ð] and Serbo-Croatian
[đ],
but technically all these three letters have independent code points
in the Unicode standard.

This key makes it possible to enter any of the African letters with hooks
with the exception of those denoting retroflex consonants
([Ɖɖ] and
[Ʈʈ]),
and also the rather widely used
[Ŋŋ]
letter. To enter these letters, use
[Alt Gr]+[f] dead key and
[Alt Gr]+[n], respectively.

After [Alt Gr]+[f] has been pressed: African
letter “iota” [Ɩɩ].

After [Alt Gr]+[Shift]+[f] has been pressed, lower case:IPA letter “turned h” [ɥ].
Used in phonetic transcription of French, denoting a sound somewhat similar
to [j] and also [w].

Lower case: unregistered trade mark sign [™].

Upper case: Inuit lowercase letter “kra” [ĸ]. Used to be
a Greenlandic letter until 1973. The corresponding uppercase letter is written
as a pair of symbols [Kʻ], using a normal Latin uppercase [K]. This letter is
located in the upper case of the layout, because it is extremely rare.

After [Alt Gr]+[f] has been pressed: letter for
palatal click consonants [ǂ]. It does not have an uppercase form.

To enter [Ǽǽ] letter, combine the diacritical mark with a letter input with
the help of [Alt Gr]:
[Alt Gr]+['], [Alt Gr]+[Aa] → [Ǽǽ].

For entering of accented Scandinavian letters [Ǻǻ] and [Ǿǿ], a combination
of the dead key with keys [;] and [/], respectively, may be used:

[Alt Gr]+['], [;] → [ǻ];

[Alt Gr]+['], [Shift]+[/] → [Ǿ].

Mnemonic rule: [;] and [/] keys are located alongside of each other and
of the ['] key; furthermore, [;] symbol is composed of two parts (similar
to the [å] letter), whereas [/] symbol is part of the [ø] letter.

Unfortunately, “Caps Lock” mode won’t work correctly with
[;] and [/] keys. Therefore, [Shift] key must always be
pressed when superscript letters [Ǻ] and [Ǿ] are input,
regardless of the current keyboard mode.

Single and double German opening quitation marks: [‚] and [„]. These
symbols are located in the bottom-left corner of the keyboard, similar
to their position with respect to a text being quoted. Single German quotation
mark visually coincides with comma, but technically is a separate entity.
Closing German quotation marks would coincide with the opening
English ones.

Note: single German opening quotation mark is a much more rare
symbol than the double one. Nevertheless, it is located in the lower case
in the layout to maintain uniformity with English
quotation marks.

After [Alt Gr]+[f] has been pressed: letter for
dental click consonants [ǀ]. It does not have an uppercase form. Pronunciation
of these clicks is somewhat similar to that of “z” in “pizza.” In some African
languages (for instance, in Zulu), “c” Latin letter is used to denote these
sounds.

Lower case: interpunct [·]. Used in Catalan
language in [l·l] letter sequence, as well as in Gascon dialect of Occitan
language in [n·h] and [s·h]. Visually resembles
multiplication sign [∙],
but technically is a separate entity.

Upper case: special key for superscript and subscript
symbols and several other special signs. Makes it possible to enter superscript
letters “a” and “o”
([ª] and [º]) used as ordinal indicators in Spanish and Portugese, and also
superscript and subscript digits as well as plus and minus signs.

Superscript symbols ([¹], [²], [³], [⁴], [⁵], [⁶], [⁷], [⁸], [⁹], [⁰],
[⁻], and [⁺]) are entered when the dead key is combined with the respective
number key (for minus and plus signs, [-] and [=] keys have to be used,
respectively):

Superscript digits may be used, among other things, to denote measurement
units (for examble, “km²” or “m³”), footnotes, mathematical powers
(for example, “10⁻³”), and tones of some of the Chinese dialects (for example,
“hoeng¹ gong²”).
Subscript digits may be used, for instance, in chemical formulae
(like “H₂O” or “H₂SO₄”). However, whenever possible, special markup facilities
(like “Superscript” or “Subscript” styles in Microsoft Word) should be used
instead of these “precomposed” symbols, as the former approach is much more
flexible and widely supported.

Besides that, this key may also be used to enter the following extra
symbols: numero sign [№], broken bar [¦], mathematical “less than or equal to”
and “greater than or equal to” signs ([≤] and [≥]), infinity symbol [∞],
and arrows ([←], [→], [↑], and [↓]):

[Alt Gr]+[Shift]+[x], [n] → [№];

[Alt Gr]+[Shift]+[x], [\] → [¦].

[Alt Gr]+[Shift]+[x], [,] → [≤];

[Alt Gr]+[Shift]+[x], [.] → [≥];

[Alt Gr]+[Shift]+[x], [i] → [∞];

[Alt Gr]+[Shift]+[x], [l] → [←];

[Alt Gr]+[Shift]+[x], [r] → [→];

[Alt Gr]+[Shift]+[x], [u] → [↑];

[Alt Gr]+[Shift]+[x], [d] → [↓].

Note: for entering of the right-pointing arrow [→], a simpler
key combination [Alt Gr]+[Shift]+[5] may be
used as well.

After [Alt Gr]+[f] has been pressed: letter for
lateral click consonants [ǁ]. It does not have an uppercase form. In some
African languages (for instance, in Zulu), “x” Latin letter is used to denote
these sounds.

Lower case: cedilla diacritical mark. Used, among others,
in Turkish and French languages, and also in Romanian when it’s not possible
to typeset comma below diacritics. Supported letters:
[Çç], [Ȩȩ], [Ḩḩ], [Şş], [Ţţ],
as well as combining diacritical mark (in combination with Spacebar) and
free-standing diacritical mark [¸] (in combination with [']).

Upper case: cent sign [¢].

After [Alt Gr]+[f] has been pressed: African letter
“open o” [Ɔɔ]. Widely used in Western Africa south of the Sahara. Lowercase
version of the letter is also found in
IPA.

To enter Sami [Ǯǯ] letter, combine the diacritical mark with a letter
input with the help of [Alt Gr]:
[Alt Gr]+[v], [Alt Gr]+[Bb] → [Ǯǯ].

After [Alt Gr]+[f] has been pressed: African letter
“turned v” [Ʌʌ]. Uppercase form of this letter visually coincides with Greek
“lambda,” but technically is a completely different symbol. Lowercase version
of the letter is also found in
IPA.

Sami letter “tailed z” [Ʒʒ]. Also used in some African languages,
and (in lowercase form) in IPA.

After [Alt Gr]+[f] has been pressed: Nigerian letter
“turned e” [Ǝǝ]. Its lowercase form coincides with a
similar letter [Əə] used in Azerbaijani and in many
African languages as well. However, technically these letters are separate entities.

Sami letter “eng” [Ŋŋ]. Also used in many African languages,
and (in lowercase form) in IPA.

After [Alt Gr]+[f] has been pressed: African
reference alphabet letter “small capital n” [ɴ]. Also found in
IPA. This letter does not
have an uppercase form.

Upper case: non-breaking space [ ]. This symbol is
visually identical to the ordinary space character, but prohibits line wrapping
(that is, transfer of the following symbol onto a new line of text).
In this manual, it is used, for example, to write down the “Alt Gr” character
sequence.

This symbol is located in the upper case in the layout (that is, a Shift
button needs to be pressed to obtain it) in order to reduce the probability
of it being typed accidentally in place of a normal space.

Greek letters

Arrangement of the keys conforms for the most part to the
standard Greek keyboard layout,
with the exception of letters “theta” [Θθ], “psi” [Ψψ], “upsilon” [Υυ],
“omega” [Ωω], and the variant lowercase “sigma” key [ς] used in word finals:

[Alt Gr]+[Shift]+[r], [Aa] → [Αα];

[Alt Gr]+[Shift]+[r], [Bb] → [Ββ];

[Alt Gr]+[Shift]+[r], [Gg] → [Γγ];

[Alt Gr]+[Shift]+[r], [Dd] → [Δδ];

[Alt Gr]+[Shift]+[r], [Ee] → [Εε];

[Alt Gr]+[Shift]+[r], [Zz] → [Ζζ];

[Alt Gr]+[Shift]+[r], [Hh] → [Ηη];

[Alt Gr]+[Shift]+[r], [Qq] → [Θθ];

[Alt Gr]+[Shift]+[r], [Ii] → [Ιι];

[Alt Gr]+[Shift]+[r], [Kk] → [Κκ];

[Alt Gr]+[Shift]+[r], [Ll] → [Λλ];

[Alt Gr]+[Shift]+[r], [Mm] → [Μμ];

[Alt Gr]+[Shift]+[r], [Nn] → [Νν];

[Alt Gr]+[Shift]+[r], [Jj] → [Ξξ];

[Alt Gr]+[Shift]+[r], [Oo] → [Οο];

[Alt Gr]+[Shift]+[r], [Pp] → [Ππ];

[Alt Gr]+[Shift]+[r], [Rr] → [Ρρ];

[Alt Gr]+[Shift]+[r], [Ss] → [Σσ];

[Alt Gr]+[Shift]+[r], [c] → [ς];

[Alt Gr]+[Shift]+[r], [Tt] → [Ττ];

[Alt Gr]+[Shift]+[r], [Uu] → [Υυ];

[Alt Gr]+[Shift]+[r], [Ff] → [Φφ];

[Alt Gr]+[Shift]+[r], [Xx] → [Χχ];

[Alt Gr]+[Shift]+[r], [Yy] → [Ψψ];

[Alt Gr]+[Shift]+[r], [Ww] → [Ωω].

Additional rules for East Asian languages

Special Vietnamese letters

To enter Vietnamese letters [Ăă], [Ââ], [Êê], [Ôô], [Ưư], and [Ơơ]
as well as their derivatives with tone diacritical marks, combine the dead
keys responsible for the tone diacritics with keys [1], [2], [3], [4], [[],
and []], respectively, using [Alt Gr]+[Shift]+[q]
dead key for the neutral tone:

[Alt Gr]+[Shift]+[q], [1] → [ă];

[Alt Gr]+[`], [2] → [ầ];

[Alt Gr]+[Shift]+[,], [3] → [ể];

[Alt Gr]+[Shift]+[`], [Shift]+[4] → [Ỗ];

[Alt Gr]+['], [Shift]+[[] → [Ứ];

[Alt Gr]+[.], [Shift]+[]] → [Ợ].

Special keys for the Vietnamese language ([1], [2], [3], [4], [[], and []])
were picked out by analogy with the
standard Vietnamese
keyboard layout. Unfortunately, “Caps Lock” mode won’t work
properly with these keys: even when in this mode, upper-case Vietnamese letters
have to be entered using a Shift key.

Changes since previous version of the layout

As compared to the previous version of this layout (that had no support for
African and Greek letters), some letters and symbols have changed their
locations:

cedilla diacritical mark has moved to a more convenient
[Alt Gr]+[c] dead key;

letter-like apostrophe [ʼ] has moved from upper case of [Alt Gr]+[w]
key to lower case of [Alt Gr]+[y] key;

a separate [Alt Gr]+[l] dead key has
been picked out for the macron below diacritical mark;

symbols denoting currensy signs ([¢], [£], and [¥]) have moved to the
upper case of their respective keys;

some of the special symbols entered with
[Alt Gr]+[Shift]+[x] dead key have changed their
positions as well.

Installation package for the layout was created in
Microsoft
Keyboard Layout Creator, version 1.4.
Source file for the layout
is available for download. Also available is a
script written in Python 3.0
language that was used to create the layout’s chart and images representing the keys.
This script will require a Python
interpreter, and also the
PyQt
library to be installed in order to work properly. With any of the files mentioned
above, as well as with the layout itself, you may do anything you like.

I, the copyright holder of these works, hereby
place them into the public domain.